The present invention relates to a hinged vehicle gate arm. More particularly, the invention relates to a vehicle gate arm having a protective roller on a hinged section for limiting the damage caused to a vehicle contacted by the lowering arm section.
Automatically operable vehicle gates are used to control ingress to and egress from parking areas, buildings, and the like. Typically, a rigid elongate arm is horizontally extended across a gateway to prevent unauthorized vehicular traffic. Remote sensing and control means for operating an arm lifting mechanism may be activated only for an authorized vehicle. The arm is automatically lowered once the authorized vehicle has cleared the gateway.
It is not uncommon, however, that the gate arm may be lowered onto an intervening vehicle. Such a vehicle may be an unauthorized vehicle that is trying to follow closely an authorized vehicle through the gateway. Alternatively, the automatic gate may malfunction and prematurely lower onto an intervening authorized vehicle. More advanced automatic gates sense the impact of the arm on the vehicle and automatically raise the arm back up again. However, both the impact of the arm on the vehicle as well as the scraping of the arm against the moving vehicle before the motion of the arm is reversed and the arm is raised often cause considerable damage, particularly to the vinyl tops or painted roof surfaces of automobiles.